Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-10-05
A Straight V'-sai-ssVs alGg'sa
THE GREAT WANT OF THE wORLl
ALL SORTS OF RELIGIONS ARE
PUTTING FORTH THEIR
PRETENSIONS.
OH, THIS PLUMB LINE OF EVER
LASTING RIGHT!

PRETENSIONS.
OH, THIS PLUMB LINE OF EVER
LASTING RIGHT!
DIR. TALMAGE'S SSERMON,SEPT.2 25Tf
BROOKLYN, September 25.-After th'
great congregation had sung the long-mete
doxology in the Brooklyn Tabernacle thi
morning, DR.. Talmage expounded the sixth
chapter of the Second Epistle to the Corin
thians, setting forth the Importance of sepa
ration from bad fellowship, and saying thai
a man is no better than the company ht
keeps. Prof. Henry Eyre Brown played at
organ solo, Sonata No. 1, in Dominor, by
Guilimant. The subject of this sermon was
! "a Straight Up-and-Down Religion" AND
the text was Amos vii, v. 8, Sand the LORD
said unto me, Amos, what seest thou and
I said, plumb line." DR.. Talmage said
The solid masonry of the world has to me
a fascination. Walk about some of the tri-
umphal arches and the cathedrals, four OF
six hundred years old, and see them stand
as erect as when they were builded, walls
EOf great height for centuries, not bending a
quarter of an inch this way or that. So
greatly honored were the masops who
builded these walls that they were free from
taxation and called ssfree'' masons. The
trowel gets most of the credit for these
buildings and its clear ringing on stone and
brick has sounded across the ages. But
there is another implement of just as much
importance as the trowel, and my text re-
ccgnizes it. Bricklayers, and stone masons,
and carpenters, in the building of walls,
use an instrument made of cord, at the
end of which lump of lead is fastened
They drop it over the side of the wall, and,
as the plummet naturally seeks the centre
of gravity in the earth, the workman dis
tcovers where the wall recedes, and where il
bulges ont, and just what is the perpendicu-
lar. Our text represents God as standing
on the wall of character, which the Israel
ties had built, and in that way measuring
it. Sand the Lord said unto me, Amos,
what seest thou ? and I said, plumb line :"
| What the world wants is straight up
and, down religion. Much of the so-called
piety of the day bends this way and that,
to suit the times. 1t is horizontal with a
low state of settlement and morals. We
have all been building wall of character,
and it is glaringly imperfect and needs re-
construction. How shall it be brought into
the perpendicular Only by the divine
measurement. "And the Lord said to me,
Amos, what seest thou and I said, plumb
! line"
The whole tendency of the times is to
make US act by the standard of what others
do. If they play cards, we play cards. If
they dance, we dance. If they read GER
| tain styles of books, we read them. We
tthrow over the wall of our character the
tangled plumb line of other lives and reject
the infallible test which Amos saw.
The question for me should not be what
you think is right, but what God thinks is
right. This perpetual reference to the be-
havior of others, as though it decided any
thing but human fallibility, is mistake as
plumb lines in use, but only one is true and
exact, and that is the line of Gods eternal
right. There is q mighty attempt being
made to reconstruct and fix up the Ten
Commandments. To man they seem too
rigid. The tower of Pisa leans over about
thirteen feet from the perpendicular, and
people 60 thousands of miles to sea its
graceful inclination, and by extra braces
and various architectural contrivanccs it is
kept leaning from century to century,
Why not have the ten granite blocks of
Sinai set little aslant? Why not have the
pillar of truth a leaning tower? Why is
not on elipse as good as a square Why is
not an oblique as good as straight up and
down? My friends, we must have stand
ard; shall it be Gods or mans?
The divine plumb line needs to be thrown
over all merchandise. Thousands of years
ago Solomon discovered the tendency of
buyers to depreciate goods. He saw man
beating down an article lower and lower,
and saying it was notworth the price asked,
and when he had purchased at the lowest
point he told everybody what sharp bar
gain he had struck and how he had out
witted the merchant. Proverbs, Xxx. IA:
sit is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer;
but when he is gone his way, then he
boasteth." So utterly askew is society in
this matter that you seldom find seller
| asking the price that he expects to GET
| He puts on higher value than he proposes
| to receive, knowing that he will haye to
drop. And if he wants fifty. he asks sew
enty-five. And if he wants two thousand,
he asks twenty-five hundred. SIT is
naught," said the buyer. The fabric is
defective; the style Of goods is poor; l can
get elsewhere better article at smaller
price. 1t is out of fashion; it is damaged;
it will fade; it will not wear WELL" After
a while the merchant, from over r-persuasiOn
or from desire to dispose of that particular
stock of goods, says: "Well, take it at your
own price," and the purchaser goes home
with light step and calls into his private Of
fee his confidential friends, and chuckles
while he tells how that for half price he got
the goods. In other words, he lies and was
proud of it. Nothing would make times
as good, and the earning of livelihood so
easy as the universal adoption of the law of
right. Suspicion strikes through all har-
gain. making, Men who sell know not
whether they will ever get the money
Purchasers know not whether the goods
shipped will be according to the sample.
And what, with the large number of clerks
who are making false entries and then ab-
sconding to Canada, and the explosion of
firms that fail for millions of dollars, hon.
] est men are at their wits end to make a
living. He who stands up amid all the
pressure and does right is accomplishing
something toward the establishment of a
high commercial prosperity. I have deep
sympathy for the laboring classes who toll
with hand and foot. But we must not for
get the business men who, without any
complaint or hammered professions through
the street, are enduring stress of circum-
stances terrific. The fortunate people of
to-day are those who are receiving daily
wages on regular salaries. And the men
most to be pitied are those who conduct a
business while prices are falling, and yet
4 try to pay their clerks and employees, and
aro in ouch faarfuI straits that thau would